Prayer for Wednesday 1/8

0-Bk3-HeartsAfire-COVER-Kindle.thumbnail-newAh, my Lord Jehovah, I praise you ~ God the Father and First Cause of all things, God the Spirit and Life Bringer, God the Son who carries out the Father’s will.  In every way, you have revealed yourself. In every way, you are the white radiance of eternity in the intense delight of divinity.  I am not in the dark, wondering about your glorious will for me like those who throw your Word in a dark closet. You provide light in your Word. You are Word. You are Light.  The rays of your wisdom stream down to me.  I catch them, and my heart is filled with You.

Your Bible is a gift I shall never tire of.  I never have to guess what is going on in the world. It is so astounding, I never comprehend all that is in it ~ about the past, the right now, and the forever future. Your Plan for this world affects the next world ~ your place of ethereal love and joy. I thank you for revealing all this to me through your Words and keeping my heart as receptive as that of a little child ~ Your child.

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0-Bk3-HeartsAfire-COVER-Kindle.thumbnail-newHEARTS AFIRE is novel three in the series THEY MET JESUS.  It is unique in that the reader takes part in the story by urging the characters to do or not do something.  It is in present tense as though YOU ARE THERE.  Each chapter is about one of 100 people Jesus met and struggled with. Life-Application questions and scriptures cited are at the end of each chapter.  At the end of each book are READINGS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS.  Take a look at this UNIQUE series on the life of Christ.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/2QT5gWI

 

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Tuesday 12/24 ~ Exciting new discoveries

The scripture for today, July 24 (7/24), is Matthew 7:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

0-Michel-COVER-Kindle-ThumbnailThe problem we have with putting into practice the Words of God is that we sometimes read blindly. We don’t see the significance of something. We may read it over and over for years and never see its significance.

Take, for example, the story of Jesus’ birth. We sometimes see pictures of baby Jesus in a stable with the shepherds and three wise men all gathered around him. But Matthew 2:11 says by the time the wise men arrived, Jesus and his parents were living in a house. Further, the Bible does not say how many wise men there were; it just says they gave three kinds of gifts ~ gold, incense and myrrh. There may have been ten or twenty wise men. And, Jesus’ age was close to two by then.

How about 1st Timothy 3:2?  “Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.” This word “overseer” is sometimes translated bishop, sometimes elder, and sometimes pastor. It’s all the same office. We might think at first glance that we believe all this. But do we glaze over the fact that he must have a wife? Hmmm….

Here’s another one. At funerals, we often quote Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.” But for the Christian, there are no shadows in the valley of death. Jesus was born “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:79).

Did you know the word “baptism” is never translated in most Bibles? It is a Greek word meaning immersion. Did you know the word “unknown” never appears next to tongues in the Bible? Did you know the word “tongues” is translated most places as languages?

Oh, so many things we overlook ~ meaningful things. Let us continue to study God’s Word daily with our mind and heart open to new things our religious leaders never told us so that we can build the house of our lives “on the rock.”

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0-Michel-COVER-Kindle-Thumbnail99c today and tomorrow.  MICHEL: THE FOURTH WISEMAN is based on a possible descendant of Daniel whose family stayed in Parthia and was in the court of King Phraattes.  He lost everything to make his dream come true: Restore the Garden of Eden so God will walk the earth again.  He was interrupted by a strange star and went on a journey with nine other wise men to find the meaning of the star.  After traveling two years, they find the meaning and go to Bethlehem. There Joseph tells them little Jesus is God walking on earth. Michel goes into a meltdown.  99c today and tomorrow.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/377DRH6

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Saturday 12/7 ~ We are never alone

The scripture for today, December 7 (12/7), is Luke 12:7 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-Thumbnail“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Jesus had just said that God knows every sparrow individually. Amazing! This God of ours, this Creator of ours, this soul-lover of ours knows everything that is going on in his world, and knows everyone in his world, regardless of where we are in the world.

There are some two trillion galaxies out there. Within each galaxy, there are one hundred thousand stars. And God is larger than all of it.  He permeates his world ~ small and great.

Not only does He know everyone, but He knows our name, our likes, our dislikes, our struggles, our joys, if we bump into a door, how much we paid for groceries this week ~ everything. He is with us where ever we go. There is no place we can go that he is not there.

We are never alone.

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0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-ThumbnailTHE HOLY SPIRIT: 592 VERSES EXAMINED.  Are all the things we’ve heard about God’s Spirit really true? This book covers every verse in the Bible. If it’s not there, it’s not true. The manifestations of God’s Spirit is broken down among the verses into topics. The Holy Spirit is not complicated. People have made it so.  Great for Bible classes or personal reading.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/2rsi3Xt

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Saturday 11/30 ~ What Adam & Eve did Right

The scripture for today, November 30 (11/30), is Proverbs 11:30 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-Michel-COVER-Kindle-Thumbnail“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.”

Remember back in the Garden of Eden? Going by the age of their three sons, Adam and Eve were in the Garden close to one hundred years.  Instead of centering on what they did wrong, look at what they did right.  They were sinless for nearly a century! Hardly any of us can accomplish that in 100 minutes.

Just think. Walking through a garden lush with the beauty of holiness.  Walking through a garden with the water of life to drink. Walking through a garden with God (materialized) himself.

How many times did that snake Satan, upright like a king’s scepter and perhaps with a crown of gold and ruby on his head, make his way gracefully through the garden, laughing and enjoying the company of newly made humans? How many times did he coil up his tail like a maelstrom spiraling through the heavens full of light and beauty as he watched the couple enjoy the fruit of the garden? How many times did this magnificent creature sway back and forth, back and forth as cobras do as he spoke hypnotic words to make them feel like gods?

“Oh, look at the fruit on that tree over there? God told you never to touch it, but God is wrong.  Go ahead. Touch it. That’s right. Did anything bad happen to you? Of course not, because God is wrong.  How about touching it with your lips? That’s right. You’re not really eating it. You’re just touching it. Smell it too. Have you ever smelled anything so wonderful? God doesn’t want you to have it. He knows you will learn what evil is and then be as smart as him. God is jealous of you. Go ahead. Take a tiny bite. It won’t hurt you.  See there? Are you dead like he said you would be? No. You are still alive. God is a liar. I am the only one who tells you the truth. I am on your side. God hates you. Sure, go ahead and take another bite, and Adam might like some too.  It’s harmless. Do not believe anything God says. He hates you. I am the only one who loves you.”

How many thousands of times did Adam and Eve chase him off, only to have him back in their lives a few hours later? How many thousands of times did they try to resume what they were doing and try to put him out of their minds? How many times did they do it right? One stumble was all the enemy needed.

That was a long time ago. Now the Tree of Life, which God withheld from Adam and Eve, is in heaven waiting for them. Waiting for you.

And as you wait, win souls.  Snatch them out of the beautiful flower-strewn web of mankind’s enemy number one. He is still out here, still beautiful, still suave, and still lying.

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0-Michel-COVER-Kindle-ThumbnailMICHEL: THE FOURTH WISE MAN lived a few miles from the Garden of Eden where the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers meet.  It was now under water.  Michel descends from Daniel. His dream is to buy what was the Garden of Eden, restore it, and bring people to it to meditate and pray so that perhaps God will return and walk the earth again. Little did he know that is what was happening over in Bethlehem.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/2Y9Z4wQ

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Wednesday 11/27 ~ Teach the teachers?

The scripture for today, November 27 (11/27), is Mark 11:27f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Titus-Cover-Lg Thumb“…the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him [Jesus]. ‘By what authority are you doing those things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you authority to do this?’ “

Of course, the answer to their question is that no one needs authority to teach God’s Word. You do not have to be “ordained” by someone else who is a teacher. Actually, you do not have to be “ordained” by another preacher to preach although elderships sometimes laid their hands on people to send them out as missionaries. But that is all. Now, what about you as a teacher?

As you learn more of the Bible, consider teaching your community’s Bible leaders and teachers. Have the courage to speak up and quote something in the Bible which that church may not be following? Then, when your religious teachers and leaders go to you wanting to know by what authority you teach something new, be ready for them with the scriptures.

Periodically tell them about this newly-discovered truth in private ~ gently and respectfully ~ again and again.

Just remember leaders often take longer to accept a new teaching. It may take them months or years to accept it. Keep on keeping on. And be patient with them.

Pray for your community’s religious teachers and leaders.  Ask God to touch their hearts. He will not go against their natural nature, but if they have honest hearts, it will work. Plant the seed, and God will give the increase (1st Corinthians 3:16). God said, “My Word will not return to me void” (Isaiah 55:11).

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0-Titus-Cover-Lg ThumbTITUS: THE ARISTOCRAT was born in a city of privilege, Antioch in the province of Pisidia in today’s Turkey.  He was educated.  When he became a Christian, Paul turned him into an arbitrator and sent him to “teach the teachers” in CORINTH of Greece, then the island of CRETE, and finally up in today’s area of Albania. Timothy brilliantly figured out who was lying to him, how to persuade those fake apostles to leave, how to keep under control imitating the Roman empire with its vestal virgins (nuns) and head bishops. All the while, he endures his own personal tragedies and eventually rises above them.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. https://amzn.to/2MRwnmn

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Sunday 11/24 ~ Let your soul soar with thanksgiving

The scripture for today, November 24 (11/24), is Ezekiel 11:24 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

OldOldTunes-Thumbnail“The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.”

Symbolism in the Bible is God’ is God’s way of getting deeper into the meaning of something for our human understanding.

For example, how did the Holy Spirit move people? Not by making them fall down, but by lifting them up. Ezekiel was the prophet who experienced this most often, and the Spirit never made Ezekiel swoon and fall down. It always lifted him up. Literally.

Jesus said in John 14:17 that he would send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. And in John 17:17 he said, “Your [God’s] Word is Truth.”

The Word of God does throw some people off symbolically but not physically, and that’s because they don’t like everything it says. So, they, in turn, throw the Bible down in a symbolic sense.

Even today, the Word of God lifts up the soft-hearted and receptive. If we let it, the Word of God can turn our lives around (in a symbolic sense ~ we don’t physically turn around) and our souls can soar to the throne of God (in a symbolic sense, not literally).

Be careful when reading something in the Bible that is symbolic to not turn it into something literal. Symbolism is there to convey a greater understanding of God that cannot be put into human words.   Keep on reading the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit continue to lift you up.

These are God’s parables in phrase form instead of story form.  What would we do without the Walls of Salvation, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God?  So, let God lift you up. Let your soul soar with gladness.

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OldOldTunes-ThumbnailTHE OLD OLD STORY SET TO OLD OLD TUNES contains 80 Bible songs set to folk tunes ~ 40 on the Old Testament and 40 on the New Testament.  Easy and fun to sing.  Remember “The Old Grey Mare, She Aint What She Used to be”?  That’s the tune for “Abraham, Sarah, they ain’t what they used to be.”  Then there’s “Farmer in the Dell” which becomes “Jonah got burped up”.  Give one to each teacher of children in your congregation. Also great for parties, homeschoolers, grandparents entertaining the little one on visits, for long trips in the car with children.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/35FhiJd

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Saturday 11/16 ~ Falsely Accused No More

The scripture for today, November 16 (11/16), is John 11:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

EASTER Strip-MetJesus“Then Thomas…said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with him.’ “

Have you ever been falsely accused?  This apostle is most often and wrongly called “Doubting Thomas.” We’ve all heard the story about Thomas being absent when Jesus appeared to the other apostles, then later said he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive again unless he could touch him. Well, the other apostles hadn’t believed until they saw him either.

After returning to life, Jesus first appeared to the women. Then, “when they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others…But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:9-11).

Now let’s look at our scripture for today. In the months before Jesus’ death, he had been traveling everywhere except to Judea where Jerusalem and the religious leaders were. Those leaders had plans to kill Jesus, and everyone knew it. Then Lazarus got sick just six miles from Jerusalem and his sisters begged Jesus to come heal him. It was dangerous for Jesus to go there. He didn’t go and Lazarus died.

John 11:7-8 says, “Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’ ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?’ “

After explaining that he needed to get to Lazarus, it was Thomas who bravely spoke up and said, “Let us also go that we may die with him!”

Later, when Thomas did finally see Jesus, he was the first to call him “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Doubting Thomas? Far from it! Brave Thomas. Devoted Thomas. Thomas who was willing to follow his Lord to the death. Thomas who was the first to call him God. That was the real Thomas.

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EASTER Strip-MetJesus

PROMISE KEEPER, SHADOW OF DEATH, COME FLY WITH ME are the complete Easter Story.  In these, Thomas plays a major role as he encourages the other apostles to not be afraid but follow Jesus to the death.  And meet his twin sister who shares his faith.  To BUY NOW click the book covers or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2OKZLLL

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Thursday 11/14 ~ What treasures we miss

The scripture for today, November 14 (11/14), is Job 11:14f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Road to Heaven-COVER-KINDLE-THUMBNAIL“If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.”

Job’s misguided friend, Zophar, was advising Job that, if he would become perfect (“allow no evil”), he would stand firm before God.

Oh, Zophar! Hadn’t he caught on yet? Hadn’t he yet realized no one can be perfect? At the end of this ancient book, God told Zophar and his friends to repent of their accusations toward Job and misinterpreting God.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews tried unsuccessfully to be perfect with the help of the Law of Moses, but they couldn’t do it. In the meantime, the nations that had not received the Law were left to try with their own methods to be perfect, and they couldn’t do it either. (Job was an Edomite.)

The only thing that ever has allowed mankind to be perfect has been the blood of Jesus. He was the perfect Lamb of God.

It has been eons since Zophar insisted that, if Job became perfect, he wouldn’t be sick anymore. As of 2000 years ago, everyone who follows Jesus is able to stand firm, because Jesus made them perfect when they washed away their sins (John 1:29; Acts 22:16).

 

Road to Heaven-COVER-KINDLE-THUMBNAILTHE ROAD TO HEAVEN begins in the Garden of Eden and the first son and Satan putting mankind up for a ransom. It progressed through the payment of that terrible ransom, and finally to our glorious bodies and heaven in the presence of God who is larger than the two trillion galaxies out there. Good for personal reflection or to someone who takes heaven for granted and does not understand the real threat of hell and what it took to ransom us. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://amzn.to/353HL2I

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Wednesday 11/13 ~ Just pick a religion you like

The scripture for today, November 13 (11/13), is Zechariah 11:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ ~ the handsome price at which they paid me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”

The book of Zechariah is full of prophecies about Jesus, especially circumstances surrounding his death. Compare the above scripture with this written five centuries later when Jesus was betrayed and crucified::

“Then one of the Twelve ~ the one called Judas Iscariot ~ went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him [Jesus] over to you?’ So they counted out for him thirty silver coins” (Matthew 26:15).

and….

“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests….So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself….So they [chief priests] decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners” (Matthew 27:3, 6-7).

The prophet Zechariah wrote this prophecy some five centuries before Jesus. The prophet had been long dead before it was fulfilled. This could not possibly have been contrived to fit such a distant future ~ the exact sum Judas was paid, the money being thrown into the temple and then given to the potters.

This is only one of many proofs. The Bible is the only religious book in the world with built-in proofs it is of divine origin.

Why not keep a list of the prophecies so you will be prepared when a friend says, “All religions are right. Just pick one you like”?

 

CHRISTIANITY OR ISLAM: THE CONTRAST quotes from the Quran and Bible on the same subjects.  The middle explains things Muslims are told Christians believe that we do not believe such as God marrying Mary and having Jesus.  It ends with statements from 100 Muslims who have decided Jesus really was the Son of God.  Can be given to a Muslim without offending them.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://amzn.to/33K7DAv

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Sunday 11/10 ~ Then one day the light goes on. Viola! You get it!

The scripture for today, November 10 (11/10), is Acts 11:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

000-COVER-KINDLE-Thumbnail“This happened three times and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.”

Acts 11 is about God telling Peter that his new heavenly kingdom was for the whole world, not just the Jews. What was pulled up to heaven was a “sheet” holding all the unclean animals which the Old Law of Moses commanded them never to eat. Now God was saying, “Eat it. The Old Law of Moses isn’t in effect anymore.”

This was hard to grasp. So hard that, even though it was God telling Peter directly a new spiritual concept, Peter refused it. So hard for him to believe, that God had to tell him three times!

Is this the way you are? You read something in the Bible that you never believed before. You read it and re-read it and re-read it, and it never sinks in. After all, you never believed that before. None of your religious friends or leaders believe it. No one on Christian radio/TV or in Christian magazines or the internet believes it.

But God’s Word remains. So, over the weeks and months and years, you pass through that scripture and read it and re-read it. Over the weeks and months and years, its meaning for your life goes right over your head.

Then one day, the light goes on! Viola! You see it! You get it! You are blessed!

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000-COVER-KINDLE-ThumbnailLAZARUS: THE SAMARITAN is a historical novel based on Jesus’ parables. He marries a Jewish girl, no one attends, so they send out to the highways and byways to fill the feast; his sister is the woman at the well, his son is the prodigal son, etc.  But their mixed-religion marriage haunts them.  The Jews hated the Samaritans and they endure prejudice.  Then one day they meet Jesus.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://amzn.to/2qJPeF1 

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